The present disclosure relates to devices and methods for analyzing kernel components, and more particularly relates to a device and method in which a specific component in a kernel is quantitatively analyzed in a real-time and nondestructive manner by spectroscopy.
The quality of rice which is example grain distributed in the market is evaluated by analyzing components, such as the granulating ratio, the opaque rice kernel content percentage, and the protein content percentage in brown rice. However, such quality evaluation is often performed by visual inspections or by crushing kernels, and thus, a new system enabling easy, rapid, and accurate evaluation of the grain quality currently needs to be developed.
In recent years, in the field of food products, near-infrared spectroscopy has been actively applied to component analysis in a laboratory; however, this analysis requires time to, for example, crush and pretreat a sample. In contrast, on the field scale, real-time and nondestructive examination technologies, such as paddy rice taste evaluation utilizing satellite images, and estimation of an ecosystem variable of paddy rice using vegetation indices, have been researched. Especially recent development of visible/near-infrared camera technologies and peripheral devices is enabling simpler measurement of spectral images at lower cost than before. A spectral image examination technology allowing non-contact and nondestructive examination of a target object is a technology which is very useful also for quality analysis and component analysis. For example, a technique has been known in which physical and scientific features of one or more seeds are analyzed in a real-time and nondestructive manner by near-infrared spectroscopy (see, e.g., International Patent Publication No. WO02/48687 A2).
Various researches on a component inspection technology utilizing near-infrared spectroscopy as described above have been advanced; however, a method which, when grain is analyzed on a kernel-by-kernel basis, provides sufficient measurement accuracy is not established.
Therefore, there is a need for a kernel component analysis device and method which, when kernel components are to be analyzed on a kernel-by-kernel basis, allow accurate measurement of the kernel components.